Before: Rat pack parties frequently featured some sort of female fisticuffs between many of the swingin' era's classiest dames and this meeting pitted two of the very best against one another before a select group of Sinatra pals. Margaret, the most dominant American celebrity since Monroe, was in her prime, well before beatings at the hands of Raquel and Sophia would sully her reputation. Dickinson a throw back, Tony Zale type boxer puncher, had wanted Ann in the ring for years, and it took no less a match maker than the Chairman of the Board himself to get it done. Ann in black push up, lime hipster bikini bottoms, Angie in black push up, zebra print bikini bottoms.
During R1: Ann Margaret made a statement early, hounding Angie to the ropes and showing Dickinson that famous left hook to the hip, ribs and head as Angie brought her arms in and rolled with the blows. Margaret set her body to throw the hook, driving in a right over the top merely to re-set the payoff left which she had bragged would 'lay Angie out' eventually. In the final minute, Dickinson brawled her way off the ropes, swatting lefts and rights, dragging her fists across Margaret's face to finish the stronger fighter in a predominantly Ann Margaret round.
R2 Angie's legs took over the bout as she stepped confidently around Ann, smiling coolly as she dropped a stiff left jab onto Ann's forehead or eyes with heartless accuracy. Hooking off the jab midway through, Angie really started to pour it on, putting wobble in Ann's trunks as Margaret soaked up some of the hardest left hands she had seen to that point in her career. Ann was hurt, and Angie dug in, ripping the left in under Ann's elbows to bite deep to the midsection, then bringing it up top to crack hard against Margaret's skull. As Ann began to wander, Angie put together brilliant bashing combinations, dropping a chopping right hand onto Ann's eye, coming back with her shoulder behind a short left hook on the jaw, then back with the right to force Margaret to the ropes. A desperate Ann tried to hook her way out of trouble, but Angie had her timed perfectly, leaning into 3 consecutive lead right hands from the shoulder to bash Ann into a daze. Hands at her waist, eyes staring, Ann leaned into the ropes, taking disastrous lefts and rights off her face as Angie tuned her up at the bell. A confident, smiling Angie D strutted back to her corner as Ann collapsed on her stool.
R3 Angie Dickinson came out to hurt, and stop, her groggy foe with a withering bell to bell assault this round. Banging Ann from corner to corner, Angie stepped with the groggy redhead, swatting double and triple left hooks Lamotta style, then stepping into that short right hand on the lips that had Margaret swooning. Angie gave Ann no room to breath, staying on her foe and laying on the leather, eyes glittering as she pounded the body and face of the woman most in the room had figured to be Angie's better going in. In the final minute, Angie put together her most frightful barrage, pounding Ann along the ropes to the corner where Margaret propped herself up to accept the deluge. Turning into cracking rights, coming back with whistling left hands deep into Margaret's firm torso, Angie literally slugged herself out, and the blonde was near exhaustion at the end. Margaret, battered beyond recognition, staggered to her corner, over-ruling her corner to continue the bout.
R4 Angie came out much slower this round, and Ann was able to get her body on the blonde, small gloves enabling the women to grip one another around the biceps, and pull one another's arms out of the way to enable cheap little body shots in the clinches. Margaret slowly took the play away this round, walking Angie around the ring, clutching and grabbing and finding a home in Angie's stomach for both fists as the girls slogged away in close. Dickinson sucking wind at the break, trembled as her legs gave out in her corner.
R5 Incredibly, Ann Margaret got stronger this round, able to harm Angie to the chest and head with that heavy hook, then clinching the blonde around the arms for a little walk. Dickinson fighting in spots, still got good head movement on Ann when she cracked her combinations off Margaret's battered face, but Ann was walking through these blows now, and Angie spent increasing amounts of time seated on the ropes, soaking up hard single lefts and rights to her gut. By the final minute, Ann was palming up on Angie, pushing the blonde back, then going to the stomach with both hands, laying in on the blonde after punching to smother the receipt.
R6 Dickinson came out with a shot look, hands creeping low to protect her hurting midsection, mouth open to breath. Ann did the stalking now, walking Angie down, battering the blonde with crisp lefts and curling rights, then stepping forward as Angie gave way with a grimace. Midway through the round, an exchange of hooks left Angie weak in the knees, and she hobbled away from Ann with a blank expression. Margaret stepping with Angie, batted left hands at her face from the side, knocking Dickinson off balance from the oblique angle and sending her clattering into the ropes. A beaten Angie D bent forward, hands low, body jerking as Ann dug into the stomach with that vicious hook, then clouted hard at the offered jaw as Angie could no longer make her opponent miss. Margaret working diligently, bobbing down after punching, getting those powerful legs in behind her punches, stunned Angie with a perfect hook on the chin, straightening the blonde against the ropes, and leaving her helpless. Another, harder hook crashed onto Dickinson's jaw, dropping her to her hands and knees at the bell. Helped to her corner, Dickinson's seconds succeeded in reviving her, and literally lifted her off her stool to begin the 7th.
R7 Ann took her time, with Angie clearly reeling and almost helpless. A couple of stiff jabs were sufficient to break down Angie's form and Ann began stepping in to finish the job with that murderous hook. Ann seemed to glow as each left hand crashed harder and harder against Angie's skull, each punch draining the blonde of her will to go on. Dickinson wavered on her hips, threatening to go down each time Ann hammered her. Finally, Ann stepped to the right, twisting her body into a hook to the stomach that scrunched Dickinson up and lowered her guard. Margaret's timing was exquisite, pulling the trigger on a finishing hook through the jaw that switched Dickinson off like a lamp. Angie out on her feet, trembled for a moment, then crashed to the canvas, laying out cold at Ann's feet as Margaret stared in satisfaction. KO7 Ann Margaret.
Although she never admitted it, most of Angie's friends and fans noticed a distinct change in Dickinson after this fight. She never admitted it, but the destructive rivalry with Margaret wore hard on Angie, using up chunks of her physical and emotional reserves which she never got back. On the other hand, these fights cemented Margaret's reputation as the premier slugging celebrity of the early sixties, a title she owed in no small part to Dickinson's die hard efforts in their brawls.